


The stupidity of knights

by Vita_Umbrarum



Series: The author chases plot bunnies around Camelot [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, domestic knights, not really hurt but still, thats not a tag but it will be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26062339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vita_Umbrarum/pseuds/Vita_Umbrarum
Summary: Cold rivers and late night patrols are horrible combinations. Not all knights realize this.
Relationships: Gwaine & Knights of the Round Table (Merlin), Gwaine & Leon (Merlin), Gwaine & Percival (Merlin)
Series: The author chases plot bunnies around Camelot [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1725211
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	The stupidity of knights

**Author's Note:**

> This fic simply refused to be written. It took way too long and I'm sorry because it's still not how I wanted it.  
> Enjoy?

It was a cold and cloudless night. The moon and stars lit up the path the red cloaked knights rode upon. It was near midnight and the knights were tired. On their left was a brook and on their right, nothing but dark trees. The sound of a falling rock cut through the silent night air.

‘’Gwaine, dismount and go check that out, everyone else wait here.’’

A tall blonde knight spoke. He rode at the front of the patrol and seemed to be in command. A shorter dark haired knight, presumably Gwaine, groaned, dismounted and slowly made his way to the river.

‘’It was probably just a loose rock, or a deer or something. We could be back at the castle alre-’’

The knight never finished his sentence, since he tripped over a root and tumbled down the slope, straight into the stream with a loud splash. One of the still-mounted knights let out a bark of laughter.

‘’Well, whatever or whoever it was, you surely scared them off with that!’’

The now sopping dark haired knight grumbled something, trudged back to the horses, and remounted his stead. The patrol rode back in silence and once they had all left their horses in the capable hands of some stable boys, scattered to their own parts of the castle, although some disappeared in the direction of the tavern. 

The still dripping long haired knight vanished and was not seen for the rest of the night.

\--

The sun shines in through his window directly into his eyes. He blinks, once, twice and shuts his eyes with a groan. There is a pounding in the back of his skull, but he can’t remember going to the tavern last night. He rolls onto his stomach and realizes everything aches.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he gets up. The room spins and he stills for a second, but once up is up and down is down again he works on getting dressed. His fingers fumble with the clasps longer than normal and something in the back of his mind tells him to go visit Gaius or Merlin. He snorts, knowing he can’t. Leon would accuse him of trying to get out of training.

Sluggishly, he makes his way down the stairs and to the dining hall. The rowdy crowd in the hall aggravates his already present headache and he settles for grabbing a few apples and eating in the courtyard.

The outside air helps clear his head a bit, but the peace is soon disturbed by several knights storming unto the training grounds. They seem confused at his early appearance but don’t approach. The group seems rather young and he doesn’t recognize their faces so he figures they’re probably new. That, or they were introduced when he was hungover. Silently watching them, he finishes his apple just as Arthur and Leon appear. The two are deep in a discussion but spare him a confused glance once they notice him.

As more knights enter the courtyard they bring their conversations from the dining hall with them. It's loud and Gwaine would like to shout at them to shut up even when normally he'd join in with the chatter. Percival appears next to him and he greets the taller knight with a nod. Arthur and Leon turn to the gathered crowd and swiftly divide them into groups to start training. They’ll hold mock fights in pairs and to win they must disarm their opponent, the rest of the group observes and has to figure out what the pair does wrong. Bors, Galehaut and a few knights Gwaine doesn’t recognize are in his group.

His joy over the mock fight quickly dissipates. There’s a pressure on his chest and he can’t breathe correctly. His footwork is off and he’s moving too slow. Bors is winning their fight. Bors shouldn’t be winning, Bors never wins their fights. He moves forward in an attempt to disarm his opponent but he stumbles and the world spins. There are spots dancing in his vision and he feels hard ground under his knees. Someone yells something and he wishes he could curl up until the sound dissipates. Someone is pulling him up by the shoulders and he comes face to face with an angry Leon.

“I cannot have hungover knights at training. You are a disgrace to Camelot in this state Sir Gwaine!”

“I’m not hungover!”

“Tell that to the ground your face just met.”

He knows Leon doesn’t actually mean that. He knows that the strange frown the older knight sports actually means concern. He knows that this is simply what is expected from the head knight. He knows all this, but the words sting nonetheless. Perhaps they hit too close to home, perhaps it’s because he’s been feeling shitty all day. He doesn’t know but he sees red and then he’s pushing Leon back, a snarl on his face.

“Fine! Don’t expect me to be there then, the next time Princess decides to start a bar fight and he gets a knife aimed at his back.”

He storms off the training field, ignoring the _Gwaine!_ from somewhere behind him. He doesn’t return to his chambers, since it’ll be the first place they’ll look. Instead he steals another apple from the kitchen and wanders around the castle, looking for a quiet spot to nap. 

He doesn’t know how long he wanders. At some point he slumps against a wall, in what seems like an unused storage room judging from all the cobwebs. He doesn’t know what part of the castle this is, but he’s tired and it’s quiet. He either lost the apple or he has eaten it, but he can’t remember. He closes his eyes and promises himself he’ll take only a short five minute nap. After that he’ll go to Gaius.

—

Arthur is pissed. It’s understandable of course, one of his best knights shows up drunk and then misses both the midday and evening patrol, but Percival really wishes he wouldn’t yell at the rest of them for it. It’s not like they’re in charge of Gwaine’s behaviour. Arthur seems to think otherwise. Percival, Elyan, Lancelot and Leon have been appointed to find the missing knight and bring him to Arthur, presumably so Arthur can yell at him.

Due to this Percival finds himself wandering the oldest parts of the castle, where almost no one ever comes. He’s walking by the storerooms where they keep decorations for Samhain and Beltane when he sees one door isn’t fully closed. He pushes the door open carefully and spots Gwaine, curled up on the floor. Even when drunk Gwaine wouldn’t sleep on the floor if there were beds available. Hastily he makes his way over to the other man and kneels down. Gwaine’s brown hair sticks to his face and his eyebrows are drawn closely together strangely. Percival pushes some of his friend’s hair off his forehead and immediately realizes what’s wrong. Gwaine’s sick.

He picks him up. Gwaine is short so it isn’t that much trouble for him and after pushing the door further open carries him out of the room. It doesn’t take long for Elyan to run into him. The shorter knight takes one look at the passed out Gwaine and the worried frown still present of Percival's face before he turns around.

‘’Bring him to Gaius, I’ll inform the others.’’

Elyan disappears in the winding hallways and Percival continues his trek to Gaius’s chambers. It takes maybe five minutes but every second feels like a century. He’s never seen Gwaine this quiet, this still, even in his sleep. During too long and too late patrols or tablemeetings, the other moved around. Elyan had told him that during their imprisonment by Morgana the knight hardly could keep still. Percival still remembers leaving Gwaine with Gaius and some other wounded knights after freeing him, hoping he would listen and stay. They had found him three hours later covered in blood with a stolen sword, a stupidly large grin on his face. No, Percival had never seen Gwaine stay still for longer than a moment. It worries him.

He stops walking and looks up. Deep in thought, he hadn’t realized he arrived at Gaius’s door. He knocks with his foot and Merlin opens the door.

‘’Come in, Elyan told me, we’ve prepared a cot for him.’’

Merlin ushers him inside and Percival sets Gwaine down on the cot. He watches as Merlin and Gaius check how Gwaine is doing, unsure how to help. He hears footsteps as people flood the room and join him leaning against a bookcase, away from the flurry of movement that is Gaius and Merlin.

‘’What happened?’’

It’s Arthur. There is anger and concern twisted in this tone and, somewhere in the depths. a hint of fear. Strangely enough, Percival expects Gwaine to jump up at those words, yell _Surprise!_ and then jump out the window off to the tavern, he doesn’t.

‘’He fell into the river last night. I thought he’d gone to see Gaius after patrol, I was wrong. This is my fault.’’

There is remorse in Leon’s voice as he speaks, slowly, weighing the words and trying to pick the best set although he knows there isn’t any. Percival feels a flash of anger towards the head knight, but it fades quickly. Any other would have gone to their court physician; how was he to know Gwaine wouldn’t?

‘’He should be fine, he simply needs rest. I’d advise against morning practice after night patrols, however. Your knights need rest, Sire.’’

Gaius addresses Arthur, one of his eyebrows raised in his infamous glare. Arthur simply nods in response and leaves the room; other duties are waiting. Merlin follows him. Gaius goes out to get some more herbs. Percival, Leon, Lancelot and Elyan -and when had those two arrived?- stay behind. On the cot Gwaine shifts, groans, and then sits up.

‘’What the hell?’’

‘’Percival found you passed out in a storage room. Why didn’t you say you were sick?’’

‘’Thought you’d think I was making up an excuse to skip training.’’

Lancelot steps forward and kneels next to Gwaine’s cot.

‘’You thought we wouldn’t care, because you’ve been alone so long and it’s hard to remember you’re not anymore. The first time I got sick Merlin found me and dragged me to Gaius before I could hole up in the castle somewhere. It’s okay to need help. Remember when Elyan broke his arm?’’

Gwaine lets out a laugh. When they were newly knighted, Elyan climbed a tree to pick some apples and refused any help for getting down. The branch he stood on snapped and he broke his arm.

‘’I thought we agreed never to speak of that.’’

‘’Whatever we agreed, Lancelot is right, Gwaine. You are allowed to ask for help, I should have made that clear. I’m sorry I yelled at you this morning.’’

‘’Is this you confessing that you do care about me Leon? I’m flattered but you have to buy me dinner first.’’

Leon turns red as the others burst out in laughter. The head knight fumbles for words but before he can give an answer he finds himself with Gwaine in his arms. The other three surround the two and suddenly Leon’s being hugged by four of his knights.

‘’We care about you too.’’

‘’If you get me sick I’m doubling your patrols Gwaine.’’

\--

Three days later Leon’s glaring up at Gwaine from the cot in Gaius chambers.

‘’This is your fault.’’

Gwaine pushes a goblet with water in his hands.

‘’Just get better.’’


End file.
